THE 43rd ELLIOT NORTON AWARDS held MONDAY NIGHT JUNE 1 at the HUNTINGTON THEATRE was a spectacular, heartfelt evening in which the BOSTON THEATER CRITICS ASSOCIATION honored the OUTSTANDING work of the greater Boston Theater Community! 142 nominations in over 3 dozen categories were represented as Actors, Directors, Writers, Choreographers, Musicians, Designers took their bows, [...]
DO NOT MISS the funniest show of the season now blowing up at LYRIC STAGE BOSTON: SOMETHING ROTTEN! I walked in casually and left hysterically laughing at the lunatic exuberance of this uproarious production-- a mad, musical theater send-up directed by Ilana Ransom Toeplitz in her Lyric Stage debut. May it be the beginning of [...]
I've been thinking about the musical SWEPT AWAY ever since I saw its New England premiere capping off SpeakEasy Stage's 35th Anniversary season, its first destination since an acclaimed Broadway sojourn. Director Jeremy Johnson runs a tight ship: 90 minutes from stem to stern! Though the set design is merely serviceable, what happens on that [...]
Love that frisky title: DIDO OF IDAHO! The play by Abby Rosebrock, now onstage at APOLLINAIRE THEATRE, is a mad mash-up of myth and modern romance about a latter day "Dido" named Nora, in love with her wayward "Aeneas" Michael. The classic myth culminates in his betrayal and her suicide. Rosebrock's dark comedy culminates in [...]
I was struck by how moving this production of BREAKING THE CODE-- Hugh Whitemore's 1986 play now onstage at Central Square Theater-- still is! In the hands of an excellent cast, elegantly directed by Scott Edmiston, beautifully lit and simply staged with an updated epilogue by Neil Bartlett, the play remains an acutely relevant real [...]
More than 130 nominations in over two dozen categories of outstanding actors, directors, designers, choreographers, musicians, and productions and five awards for visiting productions were announced today by the Boston Theater Critics Association (BTCA of which I am proud to be president!) for the 43rd Annual Elliot Norton Awards. The awards ceremony will be held [...]
WHEN PLAYWRIGHTS KILL is now having its world premiere onstage at The Huntington Theatre! The title, if not suggestive of a common occurrence, must surely be an everyday impulse. This semi-uproarious comedy by Matthew Lombardo was inspired by a real life backstage/onstage drama to which Bostonians had a front row seat in the summer of [...]
I had my socks knocked off last night by SUFFS a show which hits like a thunderbolt across history re-igniting our own fraught fight for social justice! SUFFS now onstage at THE EMERSON COLONIAL THEATRE is a stirring call to action, enacted by a glorious cast who deliver the history of women's suffrage with fire [...]
I have been at the theater every night this week and sometimes twice a day. Here are two of the best of what I've seen and how I see it: STEREOPHONIC: A masterpiece--from concept to execution. It's what happens when you lock a 70's rock band and two engineers in a recording studio until they [...]
Two to see -- after the storm! THE MODERATE now onstage at Central Square Theater is a tale of toxicity from within and without, mirrored by the darkest corners of the web. Ken Urban's play - A catalyst Collaborative@MIT Production--plunks us down in the middle of a multilayered crisis: internal and external, physical and spiritual, [...]
